the bride & the bee

For various reasons I am not that into Halloween. That being said, Amelia has been talking about being a bah-ride for the longest time and has been anticipating getting to dress up for quite awhile. Seeing her sheer excitement getting out of the car when we went down to our old neighborhood to say hello to a few friends was so fun. She pranced about and when people told her she looked so pretty, she exclaimed: "I know I do!" I suppose now it's time to work on proper etiquette, perhaps learning to just say, "thank you!" Wyatt was a good sport and even wore his hood for most of the time. : )

The getup, after the dress up:

A is for Autumn

We took our annual October trek to the mountains this past weekend. Kim and I took the kids up Thursday night and were so proud of ourselves for getting the pilot light on the heater started and then went and chatted by the fire. We discovered a few hours later that it had gone out and would NOT re-light when we went to bed. So space heaters and blankets it was, we survived to live another day. : ) With a phone call the next day, we figured out how to reset the thing and stay warm the rest of the weekend. I'm sure all you North Westerners are chuckling right now.

Saturday we headed over to Lake Arrowhead as we generally do. This year we decided to get pumpkins for the girls, which they enjoyed carving with their daddy's later that night. It was Octoberfest at Arrowhead Village, so we took in some good deals at the outlets and some lively polka music. The girls had so much fun "dancing" to the music, and as you can see, Kim and I prodded them along. A far cry from about 15-20 years ago when my dad used to blast German polka music from his garage stereo with both doors open and I would run for cover due to extreme embarrassment.

more where that came from

Celebrating Daddy's birthday at home (that's his new hat).

Playing dress up with Aunt Lindsay.

Probably up to no good.

Dinner at the new bbq place in town for Gene's birthday.

Back down to San Diego for Uncle Gene's birthday party.

The last time we'll all be together for awhile. : (

Amelia's fairy dress from Aunt Lindsay,

and some mighty good cupcakes!